The Ace of Spades
by TheDarkwriter7
Summary: AU from 'Too far gone'. When Rick made the offer, Phillip agreed for the sake of his new family. However, only a few miles away, another group with a sinister leader reside. Will the two men be able to work together to protect their communities? Or will they all simply become more victims to the man trying to save everything? Includes Carl/Lizzie on the side - PLEASE R&R!
1. Okay

**STORY DICLAMIER - I do not own 'the Walking Dead', it is owned by Robert Kirkman and AMC.**

_(A/N – Heyo everyone! It's me! This is my first Walking dead fic in a while so a lot of you guys have probably not heard of me but if you have read my other story '__**Love's dark side**__', then you may know who I am and that my previous two fics have both been set to be written at later dates due to its lack of viewers and reviewers. However, this story has been born from a plot idea that I have grown to love very much so the chances of me cancelling this fic are very low. However, please do be sure to leave a review as they show me that you guys are loving it and want the updates so the more I get, the quicker the story continues._

_Our story begins with this first chapter, which is set during the season 4 mid-season finale, 'Too far gone'. This idea of mine has evolved into so much already (I've already practically got the whole story set out) but began with me thinking this during the episode – 'If the Governor is trying to get the prison for the sake of his new family, if he really did love them, he wouldn't let his past problems get in the way of their safety.' Anyway, this is the first chapter, we will be going alternative universe in this chapter, hope you enjoy._

_BTW, Meghan Chambler? Never bitten.)_

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**The Ace of Spades chapter 1 – Okay**

"I could shoot you all. You'd all shoot back, I know that. But we'll win and you'll be dead... all of you. Doesn't have to be like that. Like I said, it's your choice."

Rick Grimes, in all honesty, couldn't think of anything to say at that moment; it had all been so sudden. One minute he had been talking to Daryl about his decision to cast Carol out from the group and in the next, he was face-to-face with Phillip Blake and what appeared to be his new group who were armed to the teeth with guns and a tank, ready to fight for the prison. He just stared at the man in the eye-patch.

Snarling distracted both of the men and caused them to avert their gazes from each other. Their eyes locked onto two walkers, which had likely heard the first tank shot, that were now making their way towards Phillip's militia. The Governor quickly cast a look to Rick before drawing his Colt MK IV Series 70 handgun. He pointed it at the head of the first walker and after looking down the iron sight, pulled the trigger; the walker dropped to the ground as soon as the bullet collided with its skull. Phillip wasted no time in pointing his firearm at the other walker before pulling the trigger; the bullet hit the creature in the mouth and caused it to select Phillip as its next meal before a third bullet put it out of its misery. With the walkers dead, the man in the eye-patch returned his handgun to its holster before turning back to focus on Rick.

"Noise will only draw more of them over. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to get out of here." Rick still made no move to say anything at all; his expression was frozen into something between fear and absolute shock. One thing was certain – he was _not _giving up the prison to Phillip, he and the initial group had worked too hard to get them and the Woodbury community where they were and there was no way he was going to lose it. But another thing was also certain and that was that Phillip Blake could be a ruthless man when he wanted to be. If Rick didn't give up the prison willingly, the Governor would surely have his militia take it by force.

That left only one option.

"You've got maybe about... an hour of sunlight left, I suggest you start packing." The Governor said, an almost pitiful tone mixed into his voice. Rick lowered his head, considering the idea he had came up with only a few moments prior. Sure, nearly everyone would be pissed off about the arrangement and Rick would surely have to (grudgingly) threaten those he loved to stay away from Phillip due to their hatred of him but right now... the prison group didn't really have a choice in the matter. It was either that or inevitable death at the hands of bullets and a tank.

"The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be for you to get out of here." Rick raised his head at the second hearing of the phrase. He caught sight of his two friends who he had grown to see as family. Hershel looked grief stricken, as if he suddenly believed that there was no good way to settle this whereas Michonne just had a glare plastered to her lips; she was probably just thinking of killing Phillip over and over again. Finally, Rick started into the man who was the Governor and said what he needed to say.

"We can all... we can all live together." Rick began. He immediately noticed Phillip release a breath which he probably didn't even realise he was holding, one of those breaths that said 'bloody hell'. "There's enough room for all of us." The Governor must've thought it be appropriate to give Rick a pitying smile because that is what he gave him.

"More than enough," he replied. "But I don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you... were under the same roof." Rick shook his head; there was no way he was giving up that easily. He pointed his finger to point at a recently cleaned out and now completely empty cell block.

"We'd live in different cell blocks." he stated. "We'd never have to see each other until we're all ready." Hershel Greene thought it would be a good time to step in. He turned his head around (the most he could in his current position) to look at his captor.

"It could work, you know it could." The Governor took his one eye's vision off of Rick to look at Hershel; he gave a slight nod of the head.

"It could've... but it can't." Those words caused the old man to frown and turn his head back to look at his friend behind the prison fence. "Not after Woodbury. Not after Andrea."

"Look, I'm not saying it's going to be easy," Rick persisted. "Fact is it's going to be a lot harder than standing here shooting at each other." Grimes' words were met with the first hint of a glare from the 'pirate' man. "But I don't think we have a choice." The Governor's visible eyebrow rose, signalling that Rick had just said something that he agreed with.

"We don't. You do." Rick pursed his lips together and with all his guts, gave Phillip a stare that would bring any other man down to their knees.

"We're not leaving." Blake bit his lower lip; Rick was starting to become frustrating. "You try and force us, we'll fight back. Like you said, the gunshots will just bring more of them out; they'll take down the fences and without the fences, this place is _worthless_." It was official, Phillip was now openly glaring at Rick and it was obvious that his patience was running thin. Finally, Rick delivered the ultimatum.

"Now, we can _all _live in the prison or _none _of us can."

And at that moment, Phillip Blake's patience _snapped_.

He jumped from the top of the tank to the ground and held out his hand to one of his group's soldiers, the soldier gave him Michonne's sword. He walked with force in his step and anger on his face until he was next to Hershel before placing the sharp metal blade at Hershel's neck. Rick tensed; he was now walking on _very thin ice_. There was now only one way to end this with no one dying – he would also have to convince Phillip's group.

"You, you in the ponytails, is this what you want?" Rick asked whilst pointing at Tara, whose face expressed fear in response to the question. "Is this what any of you want?"

"What we want... is what you've got. Period." Said the man of the Governor's militia known as Mitch, who was driving the tank. "Time for you to leave, asshole."

"Look, I've fought him before...and after, we took in his old friends; they've become _leaders _in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons and walk through those gates... you're one of us." Mitch, Tara and lots of other members of the militia exchanged questioning glances. The Governor raised his head from its previous lowered position to look at the sheriff.

"We let go of _all _of it... and nobody dies. Everyone who's alive right now, everyone who's made it this far... we've all done the worst kinds of things just to _stay alive!_ But we can still come back; we're not too far gone." At this point, The Governor was very slowly (but was all the same) absentmindedly moving the sword away from Hershel's neck.

"We get to come back and I know... we _all _can change."

Phillip lowered his eyesight to the sword in his hand that was now far from cutting off Hershel's head. He simply stared at it, knowing that _one simple swing _could change everything. He could either kill the old man and thus begin a battle with his old enemies for the prison sanctuary...

It was at that moment that the Governor saw movement in the corner of his one eye. He turned his head around to see Lily, slowly approaching the offensive group with her daughter Meghan beside her. For some reason, the young girl looked like she had had some sort of breakdown but... she looked fine apart from that.

...or he could let it all go. Forget everything that had happened in Woodbury and with Andrea. He could forgive Rick for the initial attack on the community he had built for people and in turn, would give Lily, Tara, Meghan and the rest of his new group somewhere to live in peace. And _no one would die._

Phillip Blake dropped Michonne's sword from his hand and raised his eye to stare at Rick, who was waiting for a response.

"_Okay." _he whispered.

Everyone took in a deep breath and looked at the man in the leather coat. Many of the militia soldier's expressions held disbelief, Rick, Hershel, Tara and Lily all held faces that showed great relief and happiness and even Michonne's contained slight glimpses of relief. Phillip turned around to face his soldiers.

"Put down your weapons," he ordered quietly before pointing at Mitch. "Mitch, step out of the tank." The other man complied, though grudgingly. And then slowly, one by one, the soldiers began walking towards the prison gates. Rick, wasting no time, ran towards the rope by the entrance and pulled on it, opening the prison's front doors.

Rick quickly took the time to look at where his friends stood, previously ready to open fire on their possible invaders. Tyreese's face was uncertain but apart from that, everyone else held pure anger and rage at the sheriff's decision. He sighed; he would have to talk to them all later on. As the Governor and his militia gathered up, Rick caught sight of Hershel and Michonne, who were now free of their restraints, walking towards him.

"You did good Rick," Hershel began with a smile as he patted Rick's shoulder. "You did well. You helped us avert a massive conflict." Rick nodded in agreement. Hershel looked slightly behind his friend and a frown suddenly appeared on his face, he must've seen the angry expressions of their friends. "There's going to be fallout."

"For letting the Governor and his group join the prison community?" Rick asked. "Yeah, I think so." He looked at Michonne, who silently stood next to them but was currently staring at the back of her friend's murderer. "Michonne," he called to which she turned around, that look of anger still on her lips. "While I take the Governor and his group to their cell blocks, I would like you to tell Maggie, Glenn, Daryl and Carl to wait in cell block 1 until I get there; I would like you to be there as well." Michonne appeared hesitant but after a moment, nodded and went on her way, with Hershel following. The sound of someone clearing their throat met Rick's ears as he watched them go and he turned around to see the one eyed man that was Phillip Blake with a small glare.

"Rick, I want you to know something now," he began. "The only reason I agreed to this is because I want somewhere for my new family to stay where they can sleep peacefully at night. If they weren't part of the equation, I can almost _guarantee _that there would've been bloodshed." Rick sighed and gave a glum nod.

"I bet there would've been." he replied. He looked towards the Governor's group, who seemed to be waiting for orders on what to do next. "If you're all ready," Rick began to Phillip. "I'll take all of you to your cell block's you'll be staying in." Phillip nodded in confirmation before leaving Rick and making his way to his group. As the other man left, Rick couldn't help but smile a little.

He had averted a major crisis, and saved many lives.

* * *

_Later that day..._

About five miles up the road from the prison, a little past the now destroyed town of Woodbury, a previously abandoned laboratory complex stood in all its glory. However, it is in these dangerous times that any building is good for sanctuary from the walking dead and is when a previously abandoned building is truly appreciated.

Since the beginning of the apocalypse, the laboratory complex has held host to a large community of people. Many ex-military, this community had a leader that was set on finding a way to overthrow the monsters that now walked the earth in order to get the human race back on their feet. However, this community also had people within it who had a tendency to barge into other survivors' business.

"We have to tell him, we can't just leave this be."

"What!? You can't! You know how he reacts to people talking to him about possible threats!"

"_Possible threats?! _David, the group has a fucking _tank_, anyone can tell that sooner or later, they are gonna use that to attack us and destroy everything."

"Maybe Harrison but you have to remember that they don't know we are here! If we don't do anything then we stay kept in the dark, the other group doesn't know about us and the chances of them attacking us drop significantly!"

"Yeah or... we do _nothing _to try and defend ourselves and then we get blown to bits anyway! Trust me, this time, when he hears the details, he will have something done; he has put too much work into a possible cure to have it all ruined now." The man known as David sighed and shook his head violently before pointing at his 'friend'.

"Fine Harrison, go talk to him!" he shouted. "But don't come back to haunt me when you're dead saying I didn't warn you when our leader kills you for wasting his time!" And with that, David parted from Harrison and began making his way back down the staircase of the laboratory. Shaking his head from side to side, Harrison walked up the last few steps before turning his head to see a man guarding the door at the end of the hallway.

At the end of the hallway, guarding the laboratory's main scientist office, a white skinned Russian man known only by his surname as Vorshevsky stood with a M4A1 assault rifle in his hands. The man was dressed in a full black suit with a white polo shirt and black tie with black gloves and black loafer shoes; he also wore a bullet proof vest above his clothing. He had short but spiked black hair along with black eyes that seemed so dark you could get lost in them. When Harrison reached arms length, Vorshevsky raised his hand to signal the other man to stop, he did.

"Mr. Vorshevsky," Harrison began to the guard. "I must request that I speak to our leader. I carry information that I believe is of great importance and that our leader should hear of it." For a moment, the leader's right hand man did not make any sort of movement but after a few seconds, he turned around to the door directly behind him and knocked gently.

"What is it, Vorshevsky?" a voice asked from inside the main scientist office. Harrison gulped, no turning back now.

"Good sir, I have one of your community members here," Vorshevsky began. "He claims to hold information of great importance that he believes you should hear of." Silence met the words of the Russian, thus causing Harrison to begin breathing heavily. Finally, a reply came.

"Fine. Send him in."

Harrison released the breath he had been holding due to the tension of the situation as Vorshevsky stepped out of his way after opening the door. The office was quite spacious. There was a large desk in the centre of the room that had masses of paperwork and a laptop set on it, tables were laid out all over the right side of the room with ongoing experiments being conducted on them and on the left side of the room was nothing except for the gigantic window from which you could see all in the distance. Behind the centre desk was a swivel chair, which currently had its back to Harrison.

"Do take a seat." Harrison heard from the chair. The man swallowed to try and get rid of his feeling of fear that suddenly appeared (no success) before taking a seat opposite to his leader. Before Harrison could speak a word, the chair turned around revealing the leader of the laboratory community. He was a white skinned man with mop like dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to always be staring into your very being; a pair of circular frame glasses covered those eyes. The man wore a pair of black loafer shoes, a pair of black trousers and a dark blue dress shirt; he also wore a white doctor's lab coat over his clothes. The leader leaned forward to lay his elbows on his desk, allowing him to lay his chin onto his clenched fists.

"So then, what information is so important that you believe you had to interrupt my experiments and be invited into my office to tell me about? Hmm?" the leader asked. Harrison let out a ragged breath from his throat; the man intimidated him so such.

"Sir, I believe that you should know that only a few miles down the road, as you may not know, there is another community of survivors. Recently, they..." he stopped his speaking at the sight of the leader's raised man, signalling for him to stop. Having a chance to speak, the leader sighed and got to his feet.

"Son, I know from the past that this is your first personal visit to me since you joined this group a couple of months ago and so I'm going to tell you something you probably don't know." The leader walked away from the desk where Harrison sat to stand by the massive window of the room.

"I _despise _violence; I hate it with a passion. It has led the human race to nothing but absolute _destruction _and it is for that reason that if your information will eventually lead to a request to attack this prison community, I must ask you to leave now and let me get on with my work." Now, any person who wasn't stupid would listen to their community leader and would simply leave the room. Not Harrison.

"Sir, I don't mean any offense at all but I don't think you understand the situation. They have a tank sir, a _tank!_ If they decided that they need supplies then what's to stop them from bringing that tank over here, killing us all and then taking all our supplies? What about all you've worked for sir? All this work?" Harrison said, pointing at the vast amounts of bubbling and different coloured liquids on the experimentation tables. At these words, the leader turned away from the window to look at Harrison again, which was still in his chair.

"I understand where you are coming from son but listen to me now," he replied with a tone that sent a chill up Harrison's spine. "I will _not _be the one to light the match on this. If they attack us with that tank then ok, we will fight back then but until then..." The leader went quiet as his sentence drew to an unscheduled end. A moment later, he spoke again.

"Son, have you ever thought about the future? What would've happened if humans had continued to breed?" Harrison opened his mouth to reply but stopped as he considered the question; the leader gave him a nod of the head. "Do you now see why I don't want to be the one to start this? At some point in time, humans broke the natural harmony of this world; we came to know violence like _no other species_." The leader suddenly closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "They gave _no thought _on what their use of violence would do to the world." He opened his eyes to look at Harrison again, who was simply staring at the blonde man. "Now if you don't mind son, I would like to get back to my work. Please show yourself out."

As the leader began to make his way to his ongoing experiments, he was stopped by something he definitely did not want to hear.

"No." The man in the lab coat stopped in his tracks immediately and turned around to stare at Harrison, who was looking at him from his place on the chair.

"What- What did you say?"

"I said 'No', I'm sorry sir but I'm not going to just _sit here _and let those people wheel that tank up that road and destroy us! I'm going to do something about it. I don't know what yet, but I will get something done about it." Now, if there was something that the leader hated more than violence... it was someone not listening to him when they should be. The leader stepped forward until he was right in front of Harrison and the swivel chair he was sitting on.

"You're not going to just sit there?"

"No, I'm not." The leader stared into Harrison's eyes before checking that the chair was in line with the massive window of the office.

"Well don't then." Harrison quirked an eyebrow.

"What?"

Before Harrison knew what was happening, the leader kicked him the chest, sending the chair he was sitting on rolling towards the window. The window smashed as the chair made contact with it and, with a scream of fear, Harrison feel through the window to his death at the hands of the laboratory 'watch dogs' down below. The leader sighed and rubbed his temple with his hands.

"Goddamn shame as well," he said to himself. "My mum bought me that chair."

Next, as if nothing had happened, the leader turned back to his experiments and continued his work.


	2. Laying down the law

_(A/N – Hiya guys! Me again, with chapter 2 here. First of all, I would like to say a big thanks to my first seven reviewers - __**DetectiveMax**__, __**Turnip713**__, __**Alice Kettle**__, __**Stuwee**__ and the three guests who did not give their names! You guys rock! I'm very happy that your seven are interested with the future of this fic and are eager for more! Please keep the positive comments coming as it really pushes me to get these up faster! (BTW, I would like to apologise to any Carl/Beth shippers who started reading this for that reason, as I have now changed it to Carl/Lizzie. I'm sorry; those two are just so cute!)_

_This chapter will contain the fics first dose of romance with some Carl/Lizzie in the first half. Ok, let's begin!_

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**The Ace of Spades chapter 2 – Laying down the law**

Needless to say, the reason the current people were all in the same room was obvious. Within the first cell block the original group had taken over, members of the original group currently resided, on orders of Rick Grimes. Carl, the sheriff's son, was sat inside his own cell (since this cell block _was _the one the original group members lived in); Maggie, Glenn and Beth were all sat at one of the tables of the cell block and Daryl stood patiently by the entrance stairs with all of the adults having dark glares on their faces (minus Beth, whose was more frustrated than angry).

They weren't idiots; they all knew why Rick had wanted to talk to them. It was about _him_, the bastard who had just taken over the other half of their home. No doubt the previous leader of the prison community was going to try and make them see reason, make them back off from Phillip Blake. He had no idea what challenge he was going to face.

Within his own cell, Carl laid on his bunk bed, thinking about the situation at hand himself. Yes, he was pissed that the Governor's group and Phillip himself had been able to move into the prison when they had been fully ready to kill everyone (after all, the man had been responsible for so many deaths of the people Carl knew) but... then again, his father had been in an extremely tight situation. After all, the Governor _had _been ready to kill everyone in the prison and ready to take the institute from them. Carl sighed, his father hadn't had a choice, he shouldn't be so angry at what had happened had happened.

_Knock knock!_

Upon hearing a tap on his cell wall, Carl looked up to see Michonne, who had no doubt just entered the cell block (also on orders from Rick), standing at the entrance to his cell. He gave her a small smile and motioned for her to enter which, after some hesitation, she did. The woman chose to lean against his wall and then began watching him like a hawk watching its next prey.

"I suppose you know why we have all been called here by your dad," Michonne said with an emotionless look on her face. Carl sighed in return and turned his head to look at the wall surface opposite to where Michonne was standing.

"Yeah, it's because of _him_," he replied, making sure to put extra strong emphasis on the 'him'. "All of us in this cell block right now have some sort of grudge against him. No doubt dad is going try and make us see reason for his decision." The boy paused to scoff. "He's going to have a very hard time doing it." Out the corner of his eye, Carl caught Michonne shrugging her shoulders. He turned and gave her a raise of his eyebrows in a questioning manner.

"Your dad has got Hershel on his side," she stated. "Maybe with him helping him out, Rick might not have so much trouble after all. I mean, Maggie and Beth will probably allow it if their dad is good with it, Glenn will probably come around when he hears that it was 'all for the greater good' and Daryl will probably never _like_ it... but I think he'll live." Carl raised his head a little to stare into his friend's brown eyes.

"What about you?" he asked. "Do you think my dad has done the right thing, letting the Governor take over half of our home that we have worked so hard to put together?" Michonne looked to the ground for a second, obviously in thought at the question. Seconds later, she gave Carl his answer.

"I think that your dad did what had to be done," she said, although with a slightly begrudging tone. "The Governor didn't really give him a choice, it was either 'leave by sundown' or 'die fighting." Michonne paused for a second as an almost invisible smile crossed her lips. "Your dad though, of course, gave him a third option... that we all live together. The Governor didn't want to do it but in the end... I think that the reason he wanted the prison in the first place conquered his wants for revenge and so he agreed to Rick's deal. I'm not saying that I'm _happy _with the arrangement, I'm just saying I think he did the right thing." Carl smiled at the woman leaning on his wall and she smiled back, giving him a small glimpse of her white teeth.

_Knock knock!_

Both teen and adult turned their lines of vision at the same time to look at the cell's open doorway, where Daryl Dixon now stood with his usual blank mask of a face.

"Rick's here. Come on you two."

The two left the cell promptly, following the redneck archer back to where everyone else sat. Just like Daryl had said, Rick Grimes now stood in the centre of the little circle everyone had formed with Hershel Greene beside him. Daryl took his spot back at the wall where as Michonne and Carl took places at one of the cell block's round tables. Rick cleared his throat before looking at Hershel, who gave him a reassuring smile and nod.

"Thank you all for coming here," Rick began. "Now I understand that this topic is not one we want to linger on so I'm just gonna get straight to it. The Governor and his community are now residing in the other half of our home. I understand that that unsettles you all and I don't blame you, but the fact is that it has happened and you all need to live with it." Suddenly, the sound of fists slamming down silenced Rick and drew all eyes to Glenn, who was now standing up from his seat.

"_Live with it!?_" he said, venom dripping from every word. "You want us to _live with it!?_ After everything he has done to us!? Have you not forgotten about what that... _man _has done to us!? To our family!?" Though not visibly frightened by his friend's outburst (as he knew it was going to happen), Rick chose his next words wisely before responding.

"No Glenn, I haven't forgotten about what he did," he said calmly. "I haven't forgotten about what he did to Andrea or Merle or Oscar or Axel and all of those people who used to live in Woodbury before he shot them all down." Rick paused to take in a small breath before resuming. "But the point is we were left with no choice. The choice the Governor gave me at that moment was 'fight and die' or pack up and leave the prison to him." Upon hearing this, Glenn calmed down enough to sit down again, but his expression said that he wanted Rick to continue.

"We wouldn't have had enough guns to fight him and his people off... especially with them having that tank. We would've been slaughtered and then the prison would've been useless anyway, without the fences. As for simply leaving, you know that isn't an option Glenn; we have young kids here and people who are still recovering from the flu. There is no way we would've survived out there." Glenn, seeming satisfied with the answer he had been given, decided to avert his gaze to the table instead of Rick.

"What happened to this being a democracy?" Maggie cut in with an angry glare, speaking for the first time from the seat next to Glenn. "What happened to the council that makes all the decisions for the better of this community?" Hershel, looking at Rick's position, decided to help his friend out against his daughter.

"First of all Maggie, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision; Rick had to make a choice there and then and he gave the Governor an option that was benefiting for everyone." Hershel released a breath from his throat before looking his daughter in the eye. "Plus, your votes on the decision would have most likely been biased." Hearing this word seemed to awaken the rest of the group, as everyone (excluding Rick) was now giving Hershel confused looks.

"Biased?" spoke Daryl from behind the elderly farmer. "What the hell you mean biased?" The redneck's question was quickly answered when Hershel spoke again.

"You all would have let your anger cloud your better judgement." Slowly, understanding began to settle into everyone's faces. "You all have some sort of grudge against Phillip Blake and had you have been part of this decision; you all would have no doubt been dead set against him joining the prison. You would have let your own distaste for him get in the way of everyone's needs, and that could've ended badly for everybody." Daryl shook his head, a small glare coming onto his face for the first time.

"I still think it's a bad idea. Whose to say that bastard won't try to kill all of us in the middle of one of these nights? Whose to say he won't kill one person in our group to start another walker outbreak?" Rick addressed his redneck friend by turning to look at him.

"The initial reason for the Governor coming back here in the first place was the find a safe place for his new group and his new family. He won't risk all of that just to try and get us back for what happened at Woodbury." Rick turned back to look at everyone else again and for the first time in the meeting, held a frightening look on his face.

"And I don't want any of you doing that either." All of the people the sheriff was talking to were now looking directly at him, waiting for his new 'law' to be put out. "I know that we have all been through tough times together, I know that we have lost people together and I know that we have been together since the beginning but I will _not _have you here if I think that you will attempt to kill the Governor because I will not let you ruin a lot of people's lives just for you to get your own back." From the looks he was receiving, Rick realised that most of the people thought he was bluffing.

"He will do it, you know," Maggie said quietly, drawing everyone's attention to herself. "He banished Carol after everything we've been through for her killing Karan and David so I don't see why he won't banish someone for risking the lives of hundreds of people." Everyone frowned at those words. Glenn looked at his sister-in-law, Beth.

"What do you think of this Beth?" he asked. "Do you think we should just let it all go? Have that _monster _live next door to us?" Beth swallowed hard before raising her head and giving Rick a trusting smile.

"I don't exactly _like _what has happened... but I think Rick made the right choice, for everyone's sakes." Michonne nodded her head.

"I do too," she said. Carl smiled at his father.

"I think you did good, dad. Not everyone's going to like it... but I think you did good." Rick and Hershel turned their heads slightly to look at Daryl, who shook his head and grumbled; they both smirked as they knew it was his way of agreeing. Finally, everyone's attention landed onto the married couple.

"Well," Glenn began, looking at his wife. "I guess we don't really have a choice in the matter." After giving his wife's hand a squeeze, the Korean man looked at the American sheriff. "Rick, I don't think that you have done a good thing here and I honestly don't think any good will come from it but seeing as everyone else is willing to put up with it, for everyone else... I guess I'll live with it too." Rick gave his friend a full gleaming smile.

"Thank you Glenn," he said with all the kindness he had within him. "I'm glad to hear that." The man broke his eye contact with the Korean and clapped. "That's it everyone, you can now go back to your everyday activities." With that, everyone who was sat down stood up from their places and began making their way to leave the cell block. As Carl was making his leave, his father put his hand on his son's shoulder.

"You really think I did the right thing Carl?" Rick asked him. "You really think I did good letting the Governor move in with his group?" Rick removed his hand from the boy's shoulder as Carl raised his head to give his father a smile.

"Yeah dad, I wasn't lying," he claimed. "Like I said, I don't think everyone here will like or agree with your decision... but it had to be done. You were in a tight spot and did what you did for everyone's sakes so yeah, I think you did good." Rick gave the boy a full teeth smile and removed his son's hat to quickly ruffle his hair. Carl grumbled in response before quickly pulling the hat back down to his head.

The two walked side-by-side in silence on their way out of the cell block. Both of them closed their eyes momentarily upon being hit by the sun's rays but unlike his father, Carl kept walking whilst blind only for him to be rammed into by someone. He glared at the person responsible when he opened his eyes. Lizzie Samuels.

"Oh, sorry Lizzie," Carl apologised, remembering what his dad said a few months before (if it's both your faults, just say sorry first and get done with it). "I didn't see you there." The blonde gave him a funny sort of stare for a moment before grunting.

"Yeah, really," she said before running off after her little sister. As she fled the scene, Carl couldn't help but gape at her. Where the hell had that grumpy mood come from? He had apologised for knocking into her, what else was there to be angry about? Rick suddenly appeared next to his son with a concerned look on his face.

"What happened there?" he questioned. Carl, despite his newfound maturity from the apocalypse, couldn't help but sound high pitched when he responded.

"I don't know!" he squealed. "We rammed into each other, I said sorry even though she rammed into me more than I her and then she just went 'yeah, really' and stormed off!" The boy gave his dad that 'what the hell' sign with his hands before smacking them against his legs. Rick then raised a questioning eyebrow.

"The girl who rammed into you, that was Lizzie Samuels, right?" he asked to which Carl nodded. "Didn't you say that you and her had a bit of an argument because she was naming the walkers? Saying they were still people?" Carl was about to reply when he halted himself. After a few moments, a sheepish expression appeared on his face.

"Oh... yeah," he said, sounding embarrassed whilst scratching his neck (the typical thing we do when we are embarrassed). "She's probably still mad at me about that. The way I spoke to her that day probably made me sound a bit like a jerk." His dad raised his eyebrow again and Carl groaned. "Okay, maybe a lot!" Rick chucked as he got to his knees before placing his hands on his son's shoulders.

"Carl, I know you tend to object to this a lot," he began. "But now that we have a safe place to live, I _really _want you to try and have a normal childhood." Carl sighed in annoyance and averted his eyes from his father. "Seriously son, we have nearly lost our home _twice_ in the last few days so that just goes to show we can't take a sanctuary for granted and it is because of that that I want you to have as much of a childhood as possible, okay?" Normally, Rick's speeches on Carl being a normal kid again would be met with sighs and groans but it appeared that the talk of losing the prison had awakened something because Rick's son was now presenting him with a small smile.

"Okay dad," he said plain and simple. Rick patted his son's shoulders before giving him a quick hug, to which Carl returned. Before letting go, Rick leaned his head towards his son's ear, a smirk on his lips.

"Plus, I would prefer for you to get your first girlfriend _before _I die." Carl's face blushed fifty shades of red at the idea of him and Lizzie as a couple. He used his arms to quickly push himself away from his father.

"Dad, I don't like her like _that_!" The older man chuckled at his blushing son, who was now semi-glaring at the sheriff.

"Whatever you say," he said before beginning to part ways with Carl. "But I'm being serious. You make up with her so you have at least _one _friend who is around your age, okay?" Despite still being angry at his dad embarrassing him, Carl nodded and smiled before running off in the direction of Lizzie, her sister and the other kids.

After watching his son leave, Rick turned his head to see a woman walking towards him, one he hadn't seen before. However, as the girl got closer, he realised that he _did _know her; it was that girl with the ponytails who had been with the Governor's forces. She cleared her throat when she stopped in front of the man.

"You're the man in charge her right? Or were?" she asked to which Rick gave a wary nod. "Brian wanted me to tell you that him and a couple of our group are going out to get supplies." Rick raised an eyebrow at hearing that.

"Erm, who's Brian?" he asked. The woman was next to loom confused.

"What do you mean 'who's Brian'? You were talking with him for a whole ten minutes." Understanding began to settle on Rick's face as he grasped who the woman was talking about. "He said for me to also tell you 'just because our communities are now one doesn't mean we have to share supplies'. That's why he's going out." Oh. That was why he was going to get supplies. As the woman made her leave, Rick couldn't help but look at her and then at the Governor, who was preparing some vehicles for his group's upcoming supply run.

"Well I can tell now that _is not _gonna end well."

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

Just outside the entrance of the recently re-inhabited laboratory, two men stood staring upwards at the massive hole in the building's broken top office window. They then both looked down at the splattered and half-eaten corpse of Harrison that lay at their feet.

"You think he fell at twenty five miles an hour?" One of them said out of the blue. The man seemed to be in his early to mid 20s, as his body was rather thin and looked quite young. He was a white skinned man with blonde hair that had been slicked back with some hair gel that had been found on a run only the week before and piercing yellow eyes that were covered by a pair of circular sunglasses. He was dressed in a pink polo shirt and blue trousers, with a grey tie and suspenders as additions; he wore a pair of dark blue slip-on loafers on his feet. Completely dumbstruck by the random question, the other man looked at his companion.

"Yes Fang, of course he did," he answered with all the sarcasm in the world. "He couldn't have splattered himself over the concrete that much unless he was doing _at least _twenty five!" The other man, also white skinned, was much older, with his age being somewhere within the mid to late 40s. He wore a similar pair of circular glasses to Fang (except they were actual glasses) and his grey hair was also slicked back. He wore a dark blue polo shirt with a pair of brown trousers and had a dark red tie to go with it; he also had a pair of suspenders on his person. Finally, he had a pair of brown loafers on for his shoes. Fang chuckled at the other man's response and shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry Wolf, just trying to kill time," he said as he walked over to a tree. "After all, with our 'all and powerful' leader killing people for even talking to him these days, we are going to be doing this for quite a while for most days." Fang smiled a small smile when he noticed a squirrel up in the tree he was standing beneath. Suddenly, Fang began squeaking at it as if he was trying to make contact with the animal. Wolf, hearing the noises, looked up from Harrison's body and gaped at what his 'friend' was doing.

"Are you trying to talk to that squirrel?" he said slowly in a tone that said he himself couldn't believe it. Fang turned his head at the question and gave the older man a small smirk.

"You may not remember this Wolf, but I used to be a member of the chipmunk jungle explorers. I don't see why I should have to stop talking to animals just because the world has practically ended." Wolf, who couldn't believe what he was hearing, decided to smack himself in the face for good measure. He groaned afterwards.

"Fang, will you _please _come and help me move this guy before he reanimates? We need to put me on a leash and put him into one of the ambush cages." The young blonde swallowed and began fiddling with his hands as he walked back over to the other man.

"Can you do it please Wolf?" he asked with a truly pleading tone. "You know that I don't like putting them on leashes. It reminds that me that... _he _doesn't think them as humans anymore. Wolf raised his head so quickly he probably nearly gave himself whiplash and glared at the man in the similar clothing.

"They are _not _humans anymore Fang, at least not at the moment. When he has finally finished that cure he has been working on, these people will all be human again but for now... they are not." Fang frowned at the other man's words, causing Wolf to sigh. The older of the two gave the young one a sympathetic look. "Look, why don't you go back inside ok? I'll get this guy set up for the big man." Fang nodded his thanks and began his way back into the lab as Wolf dragged the soon-to-be-undead Harrison away to be 'set up'.

As Fang walked along one of the science facility's many hallways, he couldn't help but frown the whole way. His depressed state must have been easy to notice because he was soon stopped by one of the community's newest members, a woman who had been brought back when she had nowhere else to go.

"Hey Fang," she began with a concerned look on her lips. "Are you alright? You seem a bit sad." The man snorted.

"A bit is an understatement," he replied rudely, prompting the woman's stare to turn slightly offended. Fang sighed. "I'm sorry," he apologised. "I got stuck on watch dog duty again. One of our community members died a few minutes ago so me and Wolf had to go and clean it up. He knows that I don't particularly like it so he said he would do it and let me come back inside." He looked into the woman's eyes with his sad yellow ones. "I am really sorry." The woman comforted him with a small smile to replace her previously offended look.

"It's okay darling, there is always going to be something in this world that will make someone go grouchy. But do always remember, in this world, you have to be strong, to protect yourself and all those you care about Fang. Can you remember that?" The blonde man sighed and gave the woman a small smile of his own.

"Yeah, I think I can. Thanks very much for making me feel better, I needed it. Thank you..." Fang paused as he tried to remember the person's name but was stopped when she interrupted.

"Carol. Carol Pelitier." The man smiled again and nodded at the grey haired woman.

"Okay. Thank you, Carol," he said before making his leave, no doubt going off to find something to do to make himself feel less moody.


	3. Fire starter

_(A/N - Whoo hoo! It's me! With chapter 3! First of all, I would like to apologise for my long no-update period; this is mainly thanks to the loads of homework and revision I have had to do. Now, this chapter... oh, this chapter._

_This chapter is probably one of the updates that you guys (I hope) are going to really enjoy. From the kick-off, we are going to be watching the start of the Carl/Lizzie ship unfold, we will then have a check up on our favourite one-eye community leader and near the end... oh, that will be when the shit _really _hits the fan._

_Just like last time, I would like to say a big thanks to my reviewers for the last chapter – __**K. Lynn Perks**__, __**DetectiveMax**__, __**Hunter Ark**__, __**elchonicool**__, __**Alice Kettle **__and all those lovely guests! I can't say how much I love you guys for your support right from the start! Please keep it coming and don't be afraid to tell me if you think something needs improving, I want you guys to have a cracking time reading this._

_Now then, are your seatbelts buckled and tight? Because from here on out, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!)_

* * *

**The Ace of Spades chapter 3 – Fire starter**

You would think that a young man who lived in an apocalyptic world, had seen his best friend as a zombie and had killed his own mother would be able to interact with children within his own age group. However, despite all the hard things that Carl Grimes had been through in his short life, he couldn't bring himself to approach the kids currently getting ready to play hide-and-seek around the prison (or at least, their half of it).

His father had expressed his concern on the fact that Carl was a bit of a loner when it came to friends his own age. He had made Carl realise that yes, the group had nearly lost the prison twice in a time span of only a couple of weeks, once to the threat of the flu and once to the Governor's almost unstoppable attack. So in order to make his father happy (as he probably deserved to be listened to for once for a while, considering what he had saved the community from), Carl agreed to try and become friends with the other kids of the prison community; Carl also remembered that his father said to try and focus on Lizzie Samuels, as she seemed to have some sort of grudge against the sheriff's son.

However, as Carl had been running towards the children playing tag in the prison courtyard, he had stopped and realised something. If he wanted to fulfil his father's wishes to become a friend to the other kids...

He would have to _talk _to them... and probably be _seen _with them.

It wasn't that Carl hated the little children, it was just that he was more used to communicating with adults since the time that brought the start of the apocalypse. Before Patrick, Sophia had been the last kid Carl had had some sort of friendship with and that was three years ago (not to mention that if Patrick hadn't approached Carl first, the younger boy most likely wouldn't have even learnt the other person's name). Now, he had been given the task to try and be friends with a whole _group _of children and _All at once._

When Carl stopped thinking to himself and came back to his senses, it appeared that he had accidentally made himself look like a fool as all of the kids (except Lizzie, who was looking in the opposite direction with a frown and with her arms crossed) were now staring at him because he had been staring into space only a few feet away from then. The boy swallowed down his teenager survivor pride and with a nervous smile, approached the staring children. He gave the young blonde girl (Maddie? Molly? Mary? Mika!) a small wave.

"Hey there Mika..." Carl began before trailing off. The young girl gave him a questioning look in response with a raised eyebrow and a confused look in her eye.

"What do you want?" she asked, not with a rude tone like most people said those words. Carl feigned innocence to the younger humans and gave them a shrug of his shoulders and another grin of nerves.

"What, can't a guy come over to people his own age and talk to them?" he replied. Mika, who now looked shocked beyond belief, turned to look at Luke and Molly, who were both mirroring her shocked expression. When she turned back to Carl, she had that look on her face that said she was about to give you an answer that was going to make you feel like an idiot.

"It's not that," she began kindly with her sweet voice. "It's just that in the last few weeks, whenever we asked you if you wanted to play with us, you said that you 'weren't a stupid kid who plays games all day' or you were with Patrick."

Carl began sweating bullets as it appeared that his ways of telling Mika and the other kids to leave him alone in the past had come back to bite him. In response to the young girl's statement, he chucked nervously.

"Hey, I didn't... I didn't really mean that when I guess I... _technically _said that you guys were stupid kids." Carl's words were met with a Mika's raised eyebrow, prompting a frown and groan from the sheriff's son. "Alright fine, maybe I meant it at the time... but I don't think you guys are stupid anymore. Really." Despite the fact that he believed she would be offended, Mika managed to surprise Carl again when a concerned look formed on her lips instead.

"Are you lonely?" she asked with worried eyes. The boy she was asking didn't give any chance for her to dig deeper into her concerns though. If there was anything he hated more than walkers or losing someone close or... _him_... it was someone worrying about his well being or how he felt.

"What?" he asked back in a shocked manner. "No, I'm _not _lonely. My dad just said to me that it would be a good time to try and get friends my own age so... he _kinda _sent me over here to become friends with you guys," he said, using her hands to gesture to the three small children and the teenage girl with them. Despite his cover-up though, it appeared that Mika had seen through his facade as the next thing she did found Carl's eyes the size of dinner plates because before he could stop her, the young girl used her small hand to grab tightly onto the older boy's.

"I think you are lonely," she stated with those big concerned eyes; those eyes that said she only wanted to help as a person helping a friend in need. Carl, actually shocked by her tactic, found himself stuttering and trying to find an excuse to leave. His dad said to make friends with the younger kids, not to embarrass himself in the process!

"No, I'm not... I..." he looked around the courtyard and the prison for anyone to save him from the hand-grasping child. Anyone would do right now – His father needing help with the farming, Beth needing help with Judith, even the Governor simply wanting a chat! However, it seemed that God had decided that Carl _did _have to make friends at some point (even if he had to endure embarrassment) as no one was around for him to be called by. Carl soon felt a tug at his other hand and turned his head around to see the other girl Molly pulling him (with Mika) over to Lizzie, who was simply standing around and waiting for the exchange to be done with.

"Don't worry Carl, you can be part of our game if you want," Mika reassured him, her grip on his hand never weakening. "We're about to start a game of hide and seek!" The boy sighed. Well, at least now he would be able to make those friends his dad so much wanted him to have. He had to be sure to make his dad pay though; there was no way Carl was enduring hide and seek with the kids if it meant his dad got off scot free.

"Ok, we are ready to start now," Mika said as she halted her movements and released Carl's hand. "Lizzie, you and Carl both count to twenty-five whilst Luke, Molly and I hide, ok?" The older Samuel turned her head slightly to look at the hat-wearing boy who was one year older than her. Her look seemed to be assessing him, checking to see if he was genuinely doing this because he wanted friends. After a moment, she looked away from him and confirmed her sister's request with a shrug of her shoulders and an 'alright then'. At that, the three younger kids immediately belted for the prison building itself with Lizzie and Carl turning their backs on them.

Now was the time. Just as the girl was about to start counting, the boy turned his head slightly to her only to be met with a tiny glare and one of her fingers in his face.

"Not one word. Count and search. Don't talk to me, got it?" She didn't wait for a reply as one second later, her face was obscured by her hands and she started the countdown (or count _up_). Carl didn't like to think of the girl's words as rhetorical though and so answered back.

"No." As soon as the words left his lips, Carl regretted letting them slip. Lizzie's hands lowered from her face and the young man was met with a mixed expression made more of anger and shock than her admire for his misplaced bravery. He couldn't help but gulp down some fear that had just surfaced.

"_What_... did you just say?" she asked with a venomous tongue. At this point, Carl was starting to get legitimately scared; his dad had never told him about how to get out of a situation with an angry female before. Following his instinct, the sheriff's son retained his neutral poker face and started into the blonde's piercing eyes.

"I said no. Lizzie, the only reason I really decided to come over here to play with you guys is because I have noticed that for some reason, you hate me." Said girl, like her sister before, raised an eyebrow at Carl's lie (he countered this with another groan and drop of his shoulders). "Fine, it was _one _of the reasons why I came over here, but it is the main one; my dad doesn't want to think that I have any enemies who could be my friends." Lizzie's eyes bulged at those words and Carl couldn't help but notice that his heart was beating faster when she added a glare and began walking towards him slowly.

"You call me and the others 'dumb little kids' for trying to be happy in the world we live in," she started quietly with one step closer. "You technically insult me for the way I think about the walkers... you use my sister to get close to me... and you have the _audacity _to try and talk to me!?" By now, Lizzie was nose-to-nose with the boy, was seething and was awaiting an answer from the boy who was visibly shaking from her outburst. Despite the situation, Lizzie's answer to her question was a nervous smile.

"...Yes?" The girl inhaled deeply, her chest rising and falling deeply whilst her face was turning as red as a stop sign. Carl, seeing what his answer had caused, braced himself for the inevitable punch to the stomach or slap to the face. However, _nothing _could prepare him for what happened next.

He heard... giggling.

It wasn't from behind him... it wasn't from to his left... and it wasn't from his right. No, it was coming from directly _in front _of him.

Tentatively, Carl opened his eyes and was met with the sight of Lizzie Samuels, trying to remain 'angry' as small but audible giggles escaped the tight line of her closed lips ('trying' being the key word there). When he released his body from its defensive position, her lips curved upwards at the corners and formed a discreet smile on her bright red face as more laughter made itself known.

They stood like that for a few seconds, Lizzie in what appeared to be torture and Carl simply standing there. A few seconds later though, the girl couldn't restrain herself any longer and an ear-bursting amount of laughter spilled itself into the contaminated air as she fell to the ground, clutching her stomach and wiggling her boot-covered feet. And during all of this, Carl stood watching her with a mouth as wide as a sinkhole.

She had been _faking! _She had _faked _her anger towards him! Just for a _**laugh **_as well, by the looks of it!

It must've been a good five minutes until Lizzie had calmed down enough to stand up without falling over again. When she did eventually get back onto her feet, she found the humorous sight of Carl still staring at her with a shocked expression but had a raised eyebrow that said 'what do you have to say for yourself'. She decided to play the 'innocent' card and gave him an eyebrow raise of her own.

"What's up with you? Cat got your tongue?" Carl's response was for his eyes to widen in a 'are you serious' manner and for him move his head around as if he was looking to see if anyone else had heard Lizzie's silly question. He cleared his throat afterwards and gave a very subtle nod of his head, causing Lizzie to giggle again.

"You were never angry with me, were you?" Carl asked in a tone that said she had better not joke with him again. The girl decided to throw the boy a bone and so turned off her 'joking' mode before answering.

"Well yes _and _no," she started. "I was angry at you at first when you sort of insulted me by saying how the way I think of the walkers is wrong... but then I forgave you when I decided that it was simply your opinion against mine." The girl smirked and poked her frenemy in his chest. "That didn't mean that I wasn't going to try and get you back though. I knew that at some point, your dad would want you to be friends with me and the other kids so I decided to act like I hated you to see what extent you would go to get me to forgive you." She shrugged her shoulders. "Honestly, I think you could've gone a bit further." Carl's mouth was now fully gaping. He chuckled in a sarcastic tone and then gave Lizzie a strong glare.

"What makes you think that after everything you just told me, I still want to be your friend, hm?" He asked forcefully, placing his hands on his hips. Lizzie smirked again (Carl noted that she scarily looked like the Cheshire cat) before raising her right hand to the boy's chest level.

"The fact that you haven't left even after me telling you what I did," she began, poking him when she said 'you'. "The knowledge that you would probably have to come back if your dad asked you about your new 'friends' and the fact that Mika, Molly and Luke would _never leave you alone_." To say that Carl was left shocked was an understatement; he was flabbergasted that Lizzie had managed to provide so many reasons for him to become her friends anyway. He grumbled and turned away from the smirking female who seconds later, gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"I'll go and find the others first and let you talk to your dad," she said, using that tone that was always used only to get on someone's nerves. It seemed to work as Carl was stomping away moments later simply to get away from her. She smiled a genuine small smile and gave the back of his vision a small wave of the hand before skipping off in search of her friends.

Rick was just returning from a conversation with one of the new prison members when he saw his son. He gave him a smile and a wave.

"Carl," he called out, causing his moody teenage boy to look at him. "Did it go well? Are you friends with Lizzie now?" It appeared that just _hearing _the girl's name was enough to set Carl off now, as the mere mention of her caused him to glare with more anger as he walked straight past his father.

"Yes, we're friends now! Are you happy?!" he shouted back as he made his way through the door to the original cell block that had cleared. Normally, Rick would go after his son but since his mood had been caused by a girl, who was now apparently on some level of friendship with him, the sheriff simply smirked.

"What's wrong with your son?" asked a concerned small voice from next to him. Rick looked down to his right to see a young girl, probably about seven or eight. She had long blonde hair which was currently pulled back into a pony tail by a pink hair band, blue eyes and carried a stuffed bunny rabbit in her small arms; she was dressed in a light purple shirt, jeans and wellington boots. He gave her a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder.

"It's nothing," he said, looking off into the direction Carl had just stormed off in. "He's just growing up." He looked back down to the little girl and offered his hand for her to take (which she did). "Come on now, I'll take you to where the other girls are, they might let you play with them.

And with that, Rick took Meghan Chambler off to meet those who would hopefully be the first friends she had had in years.

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

It was fair to say that Phillip Blake was starting to get bored.

Him, Mitch, Alisha and another of Martinez's group (the one that Lizzie killed before killing Alisha) had been driving for quite a while now, looking for more supplies. They had found some shops about ten minutes earlier but due to them already being mostly raided, there was little for them to take. However, the group of four had also come across a shop that for some reason had not been looted at all. They had taken all of the canned food they could carry, soaps and shampoos for showers and the little amount of ammunition the shop had had; they had also taken a portable electric generator that was currently in the back of the old FedEx van they had taken for their run.

"Bri," Mitch called from the back seat to Phillip, who was sitting in the passenger seat. "Do we really have to go any further man? We got so much stuff from that shop a few miles back; we really don't need anything else!" The one-eyed man sighed and looked out of the window.

"Mitch, we need to get as much stuff as we can," he replied. "We barely had any supplies before this and it's not like we can just go asking the other group for any they have left over." Alisha, who was driving, turned her sights away from the road for one second to give Phillip a curious look.

"Why not?" she asked. "Why can't we ask them for supplies if we need them? We are all living together as one now Brian, you need to let your past with them _go_, just like Rick said." The Governor allowed a small smile to cross his lips as he turned to Tara's girlfriend.

"Believe it or not, it's not for that reason why we can't ask them for supplies," he said. "Rick told me just before the run to pick up any medicine if we haven't found any because the other group has all fallen to some sort of flu. That's why we can't ask them for supplies Alisha, they haven't got any because no one has been _out _to get any." The woman, satisfied with the answer, nodded her head at her leader and turned her vision back to the road. However, she was unable to see the spike strip that had lain on the road.

_POP!_

All of the van's occupants shouted and screamed in fear at the massive bang they had all heard. Alisha decided to stop the van so that they could check exactly what had happened. When the van stopped, all four humans got out of the van, guns in hand, with Mitch getting on his hands and knees to assess the damage. A moment later, he stood back up with a frown on his face.

"Front tires have been ripped to shreds," he stated, causing the other three group members to groan in unison. "This van isn't gonna be going anywhere anytime soon." Mitch was about to say something else but was interrupted by an outburst from Alisha.

"Who the fuck would lay a spike strip right out in the middle of the road?" she asked rhetorically with a glare on her face, staring at said spike strip that was currently back where the group had been driving seconds before.

"Probably the same people who left this here," spoke another voice. Phillip, Alisha and Mitch all turned to see that the other member of their group was standing next to and staring at some sort of billboard. It consisted mainly of a massive map that had a big red circle on it (surrounding much of the area on the map) with two small red dots inside, a note on a piece of paper and many different versions of the Ace of Spades card from the 'deck of 52'. The other three survivors stepped towards the billboard before Mitch squinted his eyes as he began to read the note out loud.

"Survivor, as you can see from this map, you are on the borderline of our group's set up exclusion zone," Mitch read aloud. "We do not tolerate trespassers. If you are not a member of the community currently living somewhere in this area and are found inside the exclusion zone, you will be shot on sight, whether you surrender or not. Turn back now and don't come looking for help. We can't help you... it's the law of the jungle now." Attached to the bottom of the note was another Ace of Spades card except this one was covered in blood. Mitch sighed before smacking his hands against his legs.

"Well what do we do now?" he questioned his three comrades. "Our van is totalled thanks to that fuckin' spike strip, there is no way we can _possibly _carry all those supplies back to the prison and if we go in this 'exclusion zone', we are definitely gonna get shot." The four survivors stood silently for a while, all of them judging on what to do. Eventually, after a few moments, Phillip turned his vision to other three people.

"I say we go in," he said, drawing looks of disbelief from his friends. "As Mitch said, we can't possibly carry all of our supplies back on foot; the distance is too far for us to take everything. I suggest we go in, find another working vehicle and then drive it back here to get our stuff before heading back to the prison." Alisha shook her head in defiance before giving Phillip a worried frown.

"Brian," she began. "We can't go in there just for another vehicle. Who's to say that someone isn't watching us right now, wanting us to step into their zone so they can put a bullet in our heads?" Mitch and the other survivor began looking around the surroundings in fear at Alisha's point. Despite the fact though, Phillip's facial expression did not gain even a speck of fear.

"If someone was watching us, they would've shot at us by now." The Governor took a step forward, officially putting him inside the area the lab community had warned him not to enter. He stood there silently for about ten seconds, obviously waiting to see if anyone would take a shot or reveal themselves. Nothing like that happened though and so when Phillip turned back to his survivors, he saw them already taking their first steps into the zone. He raised a hand, signalling them to stop before pointing at Mitch.

"Mitch, stay here with the van," he commanded. "We need someone to protect our stuff while we go looking for another vehicle, we don't want to all come back and find all of our supplies gone." Mitch nodded at the command and made his way back to the totalled van whilst his friends began their journey through the zone to find another car.

None of them noticed the motion sensor taped to the back of the billboard.

They three survivors walked in silence along the road for about twenty minutes before the nerves began to set in. The inevitable threat of an attack on them loomed over all of their heads and the silence around them only made the situation that more freighting; it didn't help that there were walker and human corpses all along the old road as well. It was only five minutes later that Alisha's patience broke and she turned her head to look at Phillip.

"What are we doing here Brian?" she asked, keeping her grip firm on her M4A1 as she spoke to the man with a Steyr AUG A1 in his hands. "We've been walking for about half an hour now. We haven't found a single vehicle, the bodies all around us cannot be a good sign and for all we know, Mitch could be dead by now! Who's to say the survivors living in this area have found him by now?" The Governor stopped in his tracks, causing Alisha and the other survivor (who was armed with a Browning Hi-power pistol) to stop as well. "What?" Alisha asked. "What is it?" Phillip lifted his hand quickly, telling her to be quiet.

When there was silence, a vehicle could be heard approaching.

"Shit!" He swore quietly, immediately gaining his two comrades' attention. "They're coming this way! Get down, get down!" The pirate man ran for the nearby trees, followed by his fellow survivors. They quickly all hid behind large trees with their fingers primed and ready to open fire with their weapons. For a while, nothing else happened. However, that all changed when about fifteen seconds later, a big black van stopped driving in the place of the road where the three survivors had just been stood.

The back doors of the van opened up and three people jumped out the back with the driver getting out of the side door. They all wore riot gear armour from the military and were all armed with Colt Law Enforcement Carbines. None of them actually moved about for a bit; it was as if they were checking their surroundings. Moments later, one of them sighed in annoyance and pulled off their riot helmet, revealing a young white teenage boy with long brown hair, probably only about fourteen.

"God damn it, they must've heard us coming and bolted," he said. The other three 'soldiers' groaned at the teenager's words, revealing themselves as men also. Another one of the men took off their riot helmet, revealing a twin to the teen who had been the first to reveal himself. He went up to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry George, we'll catch up to them," he said. "We'll prove our worth to our leader yet." The boy known as George turned his head slightly and gave his twin a thankful smile.

"Thanks David," he said, earning a return smile from his brother. "I needed that. It's just that... since Harrison was killed by our leader... I've just wanted to prove myself, you know? So the same thing doesn't happen to me." David gave the boy pat on the shoulder and leaned closer into his brother's ear.

"Don't worry brother," he whispered. "As long as I am here, nothing is bad is going to happen you, okay?" George turned his head slightly again and after staring into his twin's eyes for a moment, nodded his head. David smiled at his brother's answer. "Good, I'm glad you understand that." He then left George to his own devices and turned away to talk to the other survivors.

George hadn't really meant to, he had just been looking off into space randomly but when he saw someone hiding behind the trees just ahead of him, he instinctively raised his assault rifle.

However, Phillip and Alisha's ally was faster.

_BANG!_

David and the other two riot gear survivors turned his heads around quickly just in time to see George fall to the ground, a bullet hole in his forehead.

"NOOOO!" David screamed. He looked off into the trees to see who had dared kill his twin and was met with the sight of three people running away further into the woods. One of them, a white brown haired man, tripped over and looked back before returning to his feet and running again. It was only then did David realise who had killed George.

It was that man with the eye-patch, the one who had threatened those living at the prison, the man David had seen with Harrison. The man who now _lived _at the prison.

* * *

Within the safety of what used to be an abandoned laboratory, a white skinned man with blue eyes covered by glasses and mop like blonde hair stood in the centre of the building's main office. All over the room, tables stood up with lab equipment set up on them, strange liquids bubbling away. In the man's hands was a small vial of purple liquid that was sealed tightly. The man was currently smirking and was staring at the vial in his grasp.

"Finally, after weeks and weeks of research and experimentation, the cure is finished."

The silence of the room (apart from experiments bubbling) was disturbed by the sound of the scientist's hand held radio. Putting his creation into one hand, he fished his other hand into his white lab coat and pulled out his radio before pressing the button, allowing him to speak to whoever was calling.

"Who is this and what is so important that you had to call me?" he asked threateningly. For a few seconds, there was only static on the other line and no response. Eventually though, a voice began to speak through.

"My leader... I have news. We have had an attack on our community. Three survivors entered our exclusion zone despite the warnings. Using our motion sensors, me and a team of soldiers tried to seek them out but we were unable to find them." The leader glared at the words he heard. Someone _dared _to invade the privacy of the community he had established?! Who would _dare _to do such a thing!? The leader was angry now but nothing could prepare him for what he heard next.

"Sir... a life was lost to the intruders. George Jarkelmen."

The leader suddenly went pale and his eyes went wide. He had... he had known George. He was a sweet boy, a kind young man who never really wanted to hurt anyone; it was only after the death of one of his friends that he decided to try and help defend the community. The leader, now with a blank expression, drew the radio closer to his lips.

"David?" he asked quietly.

"Y... Yes sir?" was the response he received.

"I can promise you something right now. I am going to find whoever killed George and I am going to make them pay. I don't like violence; I wish it never existed... but your brother was a kind young man and he deserves to be avenged."

"But sir, I... I know who did it."

If the leader's eyes widened anymore, they would surely pop out of his sockets. Shocked by this new information, he drew the radio even closer to his mouth.

"You do?" he asked. "Who? Who was it David?"

"It was the man who threatened those living at the nearby prison just earlier on. He was with two others but I could recognise him anywhere. He lives there now, I think." The leader's face reclaimed its trademark glare as his head turned to look out of the damaged window; he could see the prison in the distance (if only barely).

"Thank you for that information, David," he thanked before cutting the radio line. Without wasting a second, the leader began a call to another community member's radio. There was now a major threat to the community he had worked long to create. That threat had the cheek to _invade _his privacy and _kill _one of his fellow survivors. Plus, with the cure now finished, there was no room for negotiations. He needed the threat gone. The fire had been started.

"Hello?" answered a voice on the receiving radio.

"Wolf?" the leader asked.

"Yes sir, it's me," he responded. "What do you need from me?" Still looking at the prison in the distance outside his window, the leader answered with a ferocious glare on his lips.

"Prepare an assault squad."

* * *

_(A/N – And there you go guys, chapter 3! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I'm really sorry if it seemed to be kind of sloppy regarding spelling, punctuation and grammar near the end but that is what late night writing will do to you! Please leave me a review as usual as it really gets me going for writing the next chapter._

_And trust me, the next one is gonna be __**big**__.)_


	4. Strike of war

_(A/N – Hello everybody, I am here with chapter 4. First of all, I would like to apologise for the long no-update period, it's just that with my exams approaching and the bout of writer's block I had on the second half of the chapter, this one took me forever to do. Now, before we begin, I have some things to say._

_1. __SPOILER ALERT __- If you have seen episode 14 of season 4 ('The Grove'), you will know that both Lizzie and Mika Samuels have been killed off. They were my two favourite characters of the show since their first appearance and I was very sad about their deaths, so I suppose you could say I have now gained another reason for writing and finishing this fic – to remember those two lovely girls. I am also going to say that there is no way Lizzie will be going full psychopath in this but she may be a little bit mad just to keep her in character. So here you go girls – 'I dedicate this chapter to actresses Brighton Sharbino and Kyla Kenedy – you two rock!'_

_2. I would like to say a big thanks (as usual) to the reviewers of the last chapter – __**DetectiveMax**__, __**elchonicool**__, __**uiohfg45**__, __**letreeman**, **princessHermit **__and all those guests! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the fic so far, you're all so supportive! No matter what reason you are here for (Carl/Lizzie, Rick and the Governor working together or the action), I'm sure you will be satisfied with this chapter as it includes all of that and then some!_

_3. Lastly, I would like to quickly let you all know that despite the fact I said this chapter would be a big plot development, due to the amount of time this update has taken, the 'big plot development' (which will be the first battle between the prison community and the lab community that was meant to be in this update) will take up the entire next chapter instead of being part of this one._

_Okay, I think that is everything said and done. Alright guys, let's get on!)_

* * *

**The Ace of Spades chapter 4 – Strike of war**

It was as if nothing else existed when Fang heard that he would be going on the mission. He had desired an attempt to prove himself to the leader for a long time, an attempt to show the leader what he could do and that he could be a great fighter when he needed to be. He was to work alongside Wolf, his friend and mentor, in leading an attack on a group of survivors who had attacked their lab community for no reason and had taken a life with them. According to knowledge from a local spy, the attacking group had a lot of members and weaponry so Fang and those going on the mission needed to prepare well.

As many other survivors prepared themselves and the mission equipment, Fang got himself ready within the lab's main lobby. He slipped a bullet proof vest on over his pink polo shirt and tie, attached a belt with many clips of ammunition to his waist and then loaded and holstered his personal firearm, a German Luger P08 pistol. He made his way to the outside yard where he decided to wait until the group was ready to move out.

A growl attracted the man's attention and he turned his head to the right. He sighed upon seeing a quiet pitiful sight and after making sure no one was watching him, made his way over to the chained up and imprisoned 'strugglers'. The leader of the lab had given them that name, the undead. He said it was because he thought it be appropriate, as it seemed they were trying to hold on to their humanity... but never succeeded; they simply struggled before failing. As Fang opened his mouth to speak to the 'Watch dogs', he heard a voice calling him.

"Fang!" The blonde man turned around to see his older-in-age mentor and friend, Wolf, walking towards him. The older survivor was dressed in his normal clothing but wore a bullet proof vest and ammunition clipped belt for the upcoming mission as well. Holstered to Wolf's waist by his belt was his personal Beretta 92FS pistol and in his hands, he carried a Mk. 18 Mod 0 assault rifle. "Are you ready to go?" he asked. "The team is almost fully prepped and so we'll soon be leaving." Fang nodded with confidence.

"Yeah Wolf, I'm ready," he replied. "I've got my bullet proof vest and my Luger." At those words from the younger survivor, Wolf moved his head around to check if anyone was looking at them. When he realised no one was, he sighed and placed his right hand on Fang's right shoulder.

"Fang, there is a chance that some of us going on this mission... won't be coming back," he began. "I know that you want to do this to impress... _him_ but you have to remember that there are other ways for him to notice you; you don't have to do this." The blonde did something quiet unlike him and gave his mentor a frustrated glare.

"I am fully aware of what could happen Wolf," he said with a chilling tone. "I know that there is a chance I won't be coming back. However, you have to know that there _isn't _another way for the leader to see my potential. The only way I will ever get him to respect me is by going on this mission to fight the enemy." Wolf frowned and squeezed the young man's shoulder, almost in a reassuring manner.

"You don't _need _his respect Fang; you've lived long enough without it." It appeared those words had set something off in Fang as the next thing he did was scoff before giving the older survivor another glare.

"Yes, I do," he stated with frustrated anger. "In this community, I am classified as a deputy leader. I am at the same rank as you and Vorshevsky and yet he respects you two... but not me." Fang paused to look away from his friend and up at the window of the community leader's office. "But after this mission... that is all going to change."

"Sirs!" Both men turned their heads to look in the direction of where they had been called. Standing a few feet from them was a community soldier, dressed completely in riot gear with a Colt Law Enforcement Carbine in their hands. "We're ready to move out. Waiting on you." Wolf turned his head away from the soldier to look back at his protégé and gave him one last questioning glance.

"Fang, are you sure?" The man didn't respond at first. He lifted his head again to look up to the community leader's office window. Afterwards, he moved his head to look straight at Wolf's glass covered eyes and nodded. The elder, realising he was defeated, sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Ok. Fine. Let's go then." As Fang made to walk past, his companion stopped him by grabbing his arm. The blonde turned his vision again to, for the first that day, see a glare on Wolf's face.

"If you're going on that mission, you take off those stupid sunglasses," he said to which Fang groaned. "Seriously Fang, if you're going on this mission, you take those off and put your real ones on. I know that you have said countless times that you don't need them but right now, I don't care. We're not taking _any _risks." The young man glared at his mentor for the second time that day, hoping to get the older human to change his mind. However, Wolf did not break this time so with a sigh, Fang reluctantly and slowly removed his sunglasses, exposing his yellow eyes to the world.

With his father figure watching him like a hawk, he then moved his hand to the pair of circular glasses he kept in his pink polo's front pocket. He gripped them with the strength of a vice, showing his hate for them, and slowly applied them to his face. When they were on, Wolf gave him a small smile.

"Thank you," he said simply. With that, the grey haired adult began walking towards the group of community soldiers with the younger blonde following in a sulk. Most of the soldiers wore riot armour and were armed with Colt Law Enforcement Carbines; those were the ones who had only been a gunman since the beginning of the apocalypse. However, there were also survivors who were more experienced and were even part of the military before the undead rose; those people wore only bullet proof vests for protection and were armed with FN P90 submachine guns.

Upon seeing their two leaders for the mission, the soldiers of the lab community began piling into the five vans that were to be used as transport for the assault. As Fang was about to get onboard one, he turned his head slightly to give the laboratory one last look and couldn't help but look at the window to the community leader's office again. This time however, he did not glare at the window... he frowned.

"Why?" he whispered to himself. "Why can't you just let it go?"

A tap on the shoulder got Fang's attention back to where it needed to be. He shook his head free of the dreaded thoughts and climbed into the van before sliding the door shut. As soon as he did, all five medium sized vehicles started up their engines and began driving away from the lab and towards a possible doom.

No one noticed the frowning community leader on the laboratory roof.

* * *

"I never remembered... hide and seek... being so... tiring."

Carl Grimes had played hide and seek quite a lot in his life. He had played it when he was younger with his father, his mother and he even played it with his 'uncle' Shane when he was a little bit older. He had not played a good round of the active game for a good four years and now, as the boy sat at one of the courtyard's , he couldn't remember a time when he had been as worked up on it as he was now.

At first, he had been slow; he had allowed his 'partner in crime' Lizzie (as she, Mika and the other kids called it) to do all the finding. However, when Mika had nearly thrown a tantrum over her new friend not getting properly involved, Carl had found himself absorbed into the game. He started off as any 14 year old boy would, moving slowly but getting the job done. As the time slowly passed though, it wasn't long before his mind saw the simple game of hide and seek as a full on competition.

He had increased his speed and effort into finding the children, going as far as to chase after Mika with the determination of a hungry walker when she had escaped him at one point (Lizzie had given him a passing smirk when they had both ran past her) and now, two hours later, Carl was tired and despite protests to continue, had been excluded from the game by the older Samuels sister in order to catch his breath.

The sound of nearby footsteps drew the tired boy to turn his head. Lizzie was walking towards him with her little sister and one of the other girls, Molly, firmly in the grips of her hands, a smirk plastered onto her lips. She was dressed in that shabby pink and white striped shirt, that pair of worn grey trousers and a pair of brown cowboy-like style boots; she had worked on her hair a little so she had a side braid but still looked scruffy overall.

"Got them," she said eagerly before plopping Mika and Molly next to Carl on the stone steps. "I'm gonna go find Luke and that girl Meghan. Keep an eye on these two and I'll be back in a minute, ok?" The boy's tired response was to give her a simple thumbs up, confirming his duty as child watcher and allowing Lizzie to run off in search of the other two children.

A blanket of silence engulfed the three survivors with the only sound being awkward shuffling from the young girls. It was obvious that Mika and Molly wanted to talk, whether it be to each other or to Carl, but the presence of the bored/irritated frown on the son of the sheriff put fear of an angry outburst from him into their hearts. The girls, in an effort to relieve themselves of tension, began fidgeting greatly with Mika twirling her hair and Molly pulling at her shirt collar whilst tapping her feet on the steps. Eventually, the subtle movements of the girls attracted Carl's unwanted attention. He released a loud sigh from his throat (scaring the two young ones slightly) before turning his head to the small blonde.

"What do you wanna do?" he asked, not even bothering to try and sound enthusiastic. The sudden question, despite being scared only moments earlier, caught Mika off guard and she found herself turning to the boy questioning her with a slightly worried look on her face.

"What do you mean?" she replied. Carl gave her a deadpan stare, prompting an 'eye side movement' and shrug of the shoulders from Mika.

"What do you wanna do?" he asked again. "It's obvious that this silence is killing you and even though I don't _like _fun much... I'm not gonna sit here and watch two young girls die of boredom; I don't need that on my conscience." Molly's attention was caught by those words being spoken. She turned her head and shared a quick glance with her friend before they both simultaneously turned to stare at Carl.

That was it. They just... _stared _at him; started with eyes as wide as fish. Carl was never really one for massive amounts of attention so when the two girls started doing this... you could imagine his reaction. Moving his eyes side-to-side to look at the staring children, Carl couldn't help but swallow down some nervousness.

"Err... What are you doing?" he asked tentatively. Mika tilted her head to the side, not breaking her eye contact with the boy, before giving him a raised eyebrow in a sort of 'wary' fashion.

"Just checking to see if you're lying or not," she spoke slowly. Molly laughed out loud at the sight of Carl's new deadpan expression. Although, he couldn't really blame the girl, when was the last time he _offered _to do something for anyone who wasn't an adult? The boy sighed and showed a small smile to Mika.

"It's alright Mika," he began. "Trust me, I'm not lying. If you want to, I'll do something with you two while Lizzie is looking for Luke and Meghan." Despite his assurance that he was telling the truth, Mika and Molly still looked at each other as if to see if both fully trusted him. They looked at him in a sideways glance and after looking at each other again, both nodded.

The two practically _pounced _on him (even though that wasn't really _possible _since they were already sitting next to him). With Mika holding on to his right arm and Molly gripping his left, both with the strength of a boa constrictor, Carl was held in place and was already starting to regret his decision to 'be kind' to the children; this regret increased tenfold when he saw the mischievous smirks creeping onto their little faces. Carl couldn't help but swallow.

"I'm gonna regret this, aren't I?" he asked them, already knowing the answer. Mika shrugged, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.

"That depends really." She moved her head a little to connect her vision with her friend Molly's for the umpteenth time that day. "Molly, didn't Carl's dad give Lizzie a makeup kit from a run a few days ago?"

If he wasn't a 'mature and fearless adult', Carl would've screamed.

_10 minutes later..._

"Guys! I found Meghan!" Lizzie called as she made her way back to her friends, the young Chambler in the grip of her hand. The new community member had actually been quite hard to find, she had taken to Mika's strategy of moving to places Lizzie had just searched so as to avoid being caught but eventually, Meghan tripped up in her plan (literally) and the Samuels sibling was able to catch her before she could escape.

"Guys?" Lizzie called again upon not receiving a response. After taking a few steps around the corner, she discovered the stone steps where her friends she have been to be empty. Eyebrows raised, she looked around the entire area for her sister and friends. Instead of finding them, her eyes fell onto Carl's father, Rick, who seemed to be wiping tears from his eyes.

"Mr. Grimes," she called to which he turned his head. "Do you know where Carl, Mika and Molly are? They were here when I last saw them." At the mention of his son's name, the sheriff chuckled and wiped away more tears before they could emerge from his eyelids.

"Yes Lizzie, I have," he replied, his tone a bit higher due to the amount of silent laughter he had just recovered from. "There all in Carl's cell in cell block 1." Just as Lizzie was about to make her way there, Rick stopped her with his voice. "By the way, Mika asked me to tell you that she hopes you don't mind that she and Molly have used that makeup kit I found you."

_This _earned a very questioning look from the Samuels sibling. Last she checked, Mika hadn't been one for makeovers since the apocalypse had hit the earth. She turned her questioning gaze onto young Meghan Chambler (who was still confined to Lizzie's hand), who shrugged her shoulders. Shrugging her own, Lizzie made her way up the stone steps and into the cell block that she hoped would contain her friends and sister.

Along the way to the actual cells (they had to walk through hallways, after all), Lizzie and Meghan passed by many people, as you would in any sort of community. However, it was only when they were fifteen seconds from the cells did they notice they everybody they passed was laughing or had just recovered from a massive bout of it. As the two entered the actual cell block, they caught sight of Hershel Greene, Glenn and Maggie, all sitting down at one of the tables with all of them doing their best to conceal their uproars of laughter.

"Ok, what is so funny?" Lizzie asked the open air, hoping to get a reply from someone in her proximity. It was at this moment that another of the community's 'founding members', Michonne, walked into the cell block from the cells themselves and she was (you guessed it) also doing her best to hold down a bout of laughs.

"Michonne, what's everyone laughing at?" The young blonde asked again, not at the point of being annoyed instead of just curious. Michonne, unable to speak due to her trembling lips and tear soaked eyes, simply pointed to the cell that belonged to Carl Grimes. The warrior decided to take her leave and this point and Lizzie, with Meghan _still _trapped by her hand, made her way into the boy's cell to see what all the fuss was about.

When she saw the boy's face, she immediately understood and used her free hand to quickly cover her mouth as laughs tried to break free from her throat.

Sitting on the bottom bunk of the double bed in the cell sat Rick Grimes' son. In front of him (with her back currently to the latest visitors), Lizzie's sister Mika sat cross-legged with a smile of glee and a paintbrush in her hand. Finally, sitting on a chair close to the bed was a smirking Molly who had, long ago, simply decided to let Mika get on with her 'masterpiece' of the well loved white bunny rabbit on Carl's adolescent face.

Lizzie's failed attempt to silence herself only did good to attract the attention of the three cell occupants. The girl's sibling extended the length of her smile upon seeing her sister and made to get up, the boy painted to look like a rabbit glaring at both Samuels girls all the way.

"Lizzie! Lizzie!" Mika shouted proudly. "Do you like Carl's makeover? I did it all by myself!" Lizzie took a second to actually try and look at the design painted on Carl's face. However, as soon as she saw the look from him that said '_**please **_say something so I can hit you', she simply gave her sister a return grin and a ruffle of her blonde hair.

"I think he looks absolutely _great_," she said. "Much better than usual." It was at this point that Carl decided to raise his hands in what was almost a surrender pose before making his way to get off his bed.

"Ok Mika," he began, his voice trying to show his frustration and annoyance to the whole prison. "I think just about everyone we know has seen my... _makeover _now. Can you _please _get this off my face?" Just as the girl was about to reply, she heard her name being called by the eldest Greene family member and so she, along with Molly, bolted from the cell with Meghan Chambler trailing behind, not wanting to be restrained any longer.

Lizzie Samuels smirked with enough smugness to drown a person as Carl glared at her.

"Want a carrot?"

The boy, barely containing his anger, slowly shook his head, the paint slowly drying on the skin of his face. Lizzie (for some reason) decided though to take pity on the boy and so reached for the boll of water on the floor and the rag that the two younger girls had left there for cleaning Carl earlier. As the boy sat down and she began removing the bunny design from his face, she gave him the view of another little smirk.

"This is never gonna stop."

Carl sighed.

* * *

After Lizzie and Meghan had entered the cell block in search of Carl and his two 'captors', Rick had found himself questioning people on whether or not Phillip Blake and his companions had returned from their run to try and get a sufficient amount of supplies for both groups. However, just as he was going to ask one of the new community members, he caught the sight of a heavily damaged grey pickup truck approaching the prison gates. At first, it appeared that the guards were not going to open the gates but when they saw who was driving, they quickly gestured apologies and opened it up for the people of the damaged pickup. As the truck parked, Rick began walking towards it through the prison's greenland.

The survivors previously confided to the pickup managed to escape from it before Rick reached them and honestly, was relieved to see it was the Governor and his team who had just entered into the prison. What worried the man a lot though was the Governor's current appearance as it suggested he had been involved in some sort of struggle; the jacket sleeves were torn and the trousers had many rips in them as well. In fact, as Rick got closer to the group of four, he noticed that _all _of them looked quite beaten up.

"Brian, lookie," the woman of the group said, causing Phillip to turn around and face the enemy he was currently living with. He automatically sighed, he knew he was going to spoken to about that dam FedEx van at some point.

"Good to see you made it back," Rick said to start the conversation. He looked into the back of the pickup to see nothing of any use. No medicine, no food, no nothing "What happened to the van we let you borrow? Didn't you find any supplies?"

"No Rick," the one-eyed man responded, actually sounding... disappointed, almost with himself. "We got attacked by a herd of walkers after the van was hit by a spike strip someone left out on the road. We found this pickup and thankfully, it worked... we didn't have enough time to get the supplies."

"How much did you get... before you had to leave it?" Rick questioned.

"Believe it or not... we actually found quite a lot. We found a load of canned food, a lot of shampoo and soaps, a little bit of ammunition and even a portable electric generator." Having finished his listing, Phillip used his one eye to stare at Rick with a gaze of determination. "Rick, all of those supplies we had to leave behind were too much to lose, we have to go get them before someone else does. That is why I believe we need to quickly get a group together and need to-

_BANG!_

A gunshot rang out into the air, cutting off Phillip's sentence. Before anyone realised what was happening, a sniper bullet quickly passed through the skull of the man who had accompanied the Governor, Mitch and Alisha on their run.

Everyone ducked for whatever cover they could. Rick, Phillip, Mitch and Alisha jumped behind the parked pickup truck, the gate guards ran into whatever guard tower was nearest to them and Daryl Dixon, having heard the gunshot, quickly began preparing the people of both communities for battle.

As guns were handed out and children were taken away to more secure areas, five vans made themselves known by violently driving at top speeds up the small road to the prison gates. However, instead of charging into the makeshift gates, the vans all turned slightly; changing their course to the small patch of greenland the Governor himself had had his militia parked on when he had been prepared to attack.

All at once, the sliding doors of all the vans opened, revealing an amount of riot armour and bullet proof vest clad enemies that actually put fear into Rick Grimes' heart. However, due to their difference in clothing, two people stood out from the rest of the threats. The one who seemed to be the older of the two took a few small steps forward and removed the safety of his Mk. 18 Mod 0 assault rifle.

"You ready, little brother?" The other of the two, blonde being his hair colour, drew his German Luger P08 and removed its safety.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

_(A/N – __**MAJOR CLIFFHANGER!**_

_Right, that is chapter 4. I hope you enjoyed it as I'm afraid to say... it will be the last update you guys will be getting for a while. You see, my GCSE exams start early next month so from now on, its non-stop revising. My final exam is set to be on June 6__th__ so you can start expecting updates again after that date but until then... this is the last chapter you will be receiving. Sorry guys._

_But before I finish, I must say... I need your help. As I said in the author's note at the start, I am planning on keeping Lizzie Samuels in character but __**only to an extent **__as I do not want her killing cute little Mika. That is why I would like to ask you guys for help. Later on in the fic, I want something to happen that will change Lizzie's view on walkers and will make her realise what monsters they really are so... I need ideas. Please help me out! If you have an idea for what Lizzie could go through (not involving the deaths of Carl or Mika) to change her view on the undead, please tell me through a review or you can PM it to me!_

_Thank you so much everyone for supporting me thus far, I will see you some point after June 6__th__._

_Toodles!)_


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